A new study has found that children’s behavior may be worse at home during remote learning. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives of almost everyone, but children have faced a lot of drastic changes, and since they are still growing and developing, these changes may have been harder on them. One of the biggest changes that they faced was that in-person school was shut down and children were forced to be at home and do school virtually. They had to interact through a computer screen and were not able to see their teachers, peers, and friends face to face.This had a lot of impacts on their learning, development, and their physical activity level. There have already been studies done to see how this has impacted their mental health, but the studies are not done. According to Medical Xpress, a new study is suggesting that children’s behavior at home worsens when they complete virtual learning.The study was done by Harvard University, and it was published in the journal, JAMA Pediatrics, and can be read in full here. This study was done by getting parents to fill out surveys, and they were filled out four times from January 4th to May 23rd, 2021. They involved parents of 405 children in Massachusetts.The results found that parents were reporting that their children’s behavioral health at home was worse when they were doing school on the computer when compared to when their children were in person schooling. The survey found that 57% of the children involved had shifted learning models at least once throughout the four waves, and their behavioral outcomes tended to be worse during the periods that they were doing remote learning. The researchers stated that it was important to note that this study was done simply on a parent’s reflection, and was not looking at children directly in a lab.
They are stating that this does not confirm that remote learning was the direct cause of the worse behavior, since there are other factors that need to be taken into account. There may have been other things going on during remote learning that can impact a child’s behavior, though it is clear that remote learning does have an impact on family life and how a family works together. This may be especially true if the parent is trying to work from home, and help their child, which can cause added stress.
Sources: Medical Xpress, JAMA Pediatrics